Parolin, Assistant Professor of Law at the American University in Cairo, fills a gap in knowledge about citizenship law in the Arab world. He does away with the problem of previous works in comparative nationality law that they, on the one hand, focus almost exclusively on European countries. On the other hand, studies published directly in the Arab region are often ideologically biased in their analyses.

This book stands out because it provides detailed information on rules of acquisition and loss of nationality as well as comparative analyses that further the understanding of the particular models of citizenship in the Arab world. Parolin explains how historical models of membership in the kin group and the religious community inform present regulation of ‘nationality’ and ‘citizenship’ in the relatively new nation States of the region. This conclusion challenges the political claim of ‘strong’ nation states to be a unifying force across boundaries of kin groups (and in some countries, religion, too). The emphasis on the importance of kin relations also challenges models of ‘Islamic citizenship’ which would like to see belonging to the Ummah (global community of Muslims) as the sole determining factor of membership.

The specific information contained in the book on current nationality laws will be of interest to those who work in, or deal with, cases involving persons from Arab countries. At the same time, Parolin succeeds on a theoretical level in combining comparative legal and Islamic studies, sociology, political science and even linguistics to make this book an inspiring read and very accessible to a broad audience.

In a concise manner, Parolin's book thoroughly covers many areas pertaining to citizenship in the Arab World. The well-structured table of contents facilitates the navigation of these subjects. In the introduction, he goes as far back as the ancient world, in search of early characteristics of the current model of citizenship in the region. Since the Orient is often portrayed as the opposite of the Occident, it is interesting to learn that the development of citizenship concepts in both parts of the world drew on Greek philosophy and thus followed similar paths, at least initially. Subsequently, Parolin locates the differences and communalities between the current systems by analysing the etymological development of the Arabic terms for ‘citizenship’ (muwātanah, as a relatively new term which has not yet found its way into all Arabic dictionaries) and ‘nationality’ (jinsīyah). Parolin argues that ‘[C]onceptualisations of citizen and citizenship are alien to the traditional Arab-Islamic political discourse, and even their expression in Arabic, required a lexical effort to find or introduce appropriate referents.’ (p 23). The influence of European thought, and in particular French legal tradition, only gains importance in the 19^th and 20^th centuries during the colonial period and later in the newly formed nation-States.

Each of the three main chapters of the book explores in detail one of the three ‘levels of membership’ which serve as the analytical framework for Parolin's study—those being membership in the kin group, in the religious community and in the nation-State.

He argues that the construction of citizenship in each Arab country is influenced, to a varying degree, by the three forms of membership; ‘By intertwining and overlapping, the three levels of membership determine the actual extension of individual citizenship (muwātanah) and affect the local regulations on nationality (jinsīyah).’ (p 127). It is thus this specific threefold character that distinguishes the Arab model of citizenship from others and that provides the connection between 18 majority-Arab states analysed in Parolin's book.

In the final chapter, Parolin seeks to answer the question as to how this interplay of different levels of belonging affects the individual's access to citizenship and the rights and duties attached to it. With regard to kin membership, the book discusses examples of certain kin groups that are in fact being denied access to citizenship, often in violation of national laws. Such cases are, for instance, nomadic groups in Kuwait known as bidūns (from bidūn jinsīyah ‘without nationality’) or the al-Ghufrān in Qatar.

Parolin also demonstrates how the concept of religious—Islamic—membership impacts on the regulation of nationality in Arab countries by referring to concrete examples of legislation. Many constitutions of States in the region, for instance, require the President to be Muslim. Furthermore, some legal codes prevent non-Muslims from being naturalized or imply the loss of nationality in the case of the renunciation of Islam.

It was long after the formation of a Muslim community that a new type of membership came into being in the Arab world—citizenship in the nation-State. The book explains how this concept of belonging to the political entity of the nation-State emerged as the result of the Ottoman Empire's decline, when a new, secular form of membership had to be found.

Parolin draws the conclusion that ‘[m]embership in the kin group and in the religious community is still a relevant element for modern citizenship, both for the vertical nationality (eg naturalisation or stripping of nationality on grounds of kin or religious affiliation) and the horizontal citizenship (eg kin group political representation or confessional constituencies).’ (p 27). The outcome of this dynamic is a distinct model of citizenship prevailing in the Arab world that makes for a rewarding subject for investigation. Parolin's book succeeds in presenting a complex topic, also covering a large geographical area and time span, in a concise manner, featuring original and revealing methods of analysis.